Supreme Court asks Allahabad High Court to hear Azam Khan's plea against ED arrest on November 16

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Allahabad High Court to grant priority hearing on November 16 to Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mohd Azam Khan's plea challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) immediately after he was released from jail in another case..A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that while Khan's arguments concerning political malice against him might have some substance, it will refrain from expressing any opinion on the merits of the matter and would leave it to the High Court."There is one ECIR, but 28 cases. Just see the document. This is pure persecution. This Court cannot allow this. Please see page 197. How can anybody file an FIR in 2019 concerning an incident of 2006, when I was out of power?" Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal said on behalf of Khan. "Your argument may have some substance but we do not want to express any opinion," the CJI remarked. The Court, therefore, directed Khan to approach the High Court and directed the High Court to grant priority hearing in the matter.Towards that end, the Court asked High Court registrar general to put the matter before the appropriate jurisdictional authority of the High Court, even if there are vacations, and obtain appropriate orders for listing of the matter before a division bench of the High Court on November 16"It seems to us that the appropriate course for the petitioner would be firstly to approach the jurisdictional High Court. However, in order to expedite the hearing, we direct the Registry to transfer the original record of this petition to the Registrar General of the Allahabad High Court. The records must be transmitted within two days. The Registrar General of the Allahabad High Court is directed to put the matter before the appropriate jurisdictional authority of the High Court, even if there are vacations, and obtain appropriate orders for listing of the matter before the Division Bench of the High Court on November 16, 2026," the top court ordered.Further, the High Court was requested to consider the prayer for interim relief on that date. "Liberty is granted to file amended prayers and additional documents, if so advised. We have not expressed any opinion on merits. All contentions are kept open," the bench added..Your argument may have some substance but we do not want to express any opinion.Supreme Court.The ED case concerns allegations that agricultural land belonging to farmers were forcibly occupied for Mohammad Ali Jauhar University.The ED initiated money laundering charges against Khan and others based on around 26 first information reports (FIRs) registered by the Uttar Pradesh Police in 2019..Khan and his son Abdullah Azam, who were earlier in jail in a dual PAN card case, were granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in that case on October 29.Khan and his son were released from Rampur jail on October 31 but Khan was detained by the ED team waiting outside the jail. The ED action came in relation to the money laundering case involving alleged financial irregularities concerning Mohammad Ali Jauhar University.A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Ghaziabad remanded Khan to 14-day judicial custody on November 1..Khan then approached the Supreme Court challenging his arrest by ED..[Read Live Coverage]